Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 08-264088 published on Oct. 11, 1996 discloses an acceleration detecting device, that includes a hollow housing having a closed end and an open end, a weight pivotally supported in the hollow housing to be rotated in response to an applied acceleration, and a contact assembly electrically closed by the rotation of the weight. The open end of the hollow housing is closed by a cover that is pressed into the open end. The weight and the contact assembly are both supported by the cover.
However, in this known acceleration detecting device, the weight and the contact assembly may prevent the cover from sufficiently overlapping with the hollow housing. Accordingly, the cover may be inclined with respect to the hollow housing when a clearance is generated as a result of dimensional errors between the hollow housing and the cover. By virtue of such inclination, the weight and the contact assembly may interfere with the hollow housing. Although the cover may be thickened to enlarge the overlapping area between the hollow housing and the cover, this undesirably increases the size of the acceleration detecting device.
Accordingly, a need exists for an acceleration detecting device that is not susceptible of the same disadvantages and drawbacks noted above.
Thus, a need exists for an acceleration detecting device that is able to support the contact assembly in a more reliable manner.
Also, a need exists for an acceleration detecting device that permits the housing to be hermetically sealed with the cover.